Monday, February 21, 2022

George Washington

(Thanks, Bill!)

1 comment:

Marco McClean said...

/What Did Washington Say When He Crossed the Delaware/, by Lou Monte, was in the jukebox of my grandparents' Italian restaurant when I was 4-6 years old. I liked to play it over and over. The jukebox mafia company guy would give back the red-painted quarters we put in. It was one song for a dime and three for a quarter. All the records were chosen and installed by that guy, but he made pretty good choices. Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8LxdC63dTc

Other songs stick in my mind from that jukebox, too, that I can still hear them inside my head with all the lyrics, even if I didn't have them all on a mixtape in the car now, along with /Boom, Like That/ and /Boom Boom Ba/ and /I Lived On the Moon/ (both the plugged and unplugged versions), and /Crazy On You/ and /Say Goodbye to Little Jo/, /Cellophane City/, /Town Without Pity/, three versions each of /Sway/ and /Fever/, /She Moves In Mysterious Ways/, /Mr. Wu's a Window Cleaner Now/, /Take A Walk on the Wonka Side/, /Come Dancing/, and /Tubas In The Moonlight/, /The Torchum Never Stops/, /Ain't Misbehavin'/ and /*Jedediah 1777/ (not in that order):

The Rooftop Singers, /Walk Right In, Sit Right Down/. I asked the adults what that was really about, and they said, "It's about a guy who walks in and sits down." I said, "And he lets his mind roll on?" "Yeah."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQD1Jsj1d3w

Connie Francis, /Torero/ (and /Volare/).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Harzx0yu9zw

Tony Bennett, /I Left My Heart In San Francisco/. They'd actually taken me to San Francisco when I was a baby. I understand that a strange man on the train fed me a strawberry and my neck swelled up so that my mother had to pull the string and stop the whole train because of her terror that I would choke to death. I don't have bad consequences from strawberries now, nor peanuts, nor any common food but candy corn or red licorice, which are poison as well as merely vile, and alcohol, of course. So few things, and all easy enough to avoid.

/Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport./ I played that a lot too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Pnead96bA

Also we had the Lou Monte album with /Pepino the Italian Mouse/ on it, which was my favorite song from all of childhood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V57hP7Ipjw4

As well as /Please-a Mister Columbus a-Turna the Ship Around./
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3391_DYWT9E

*/Jedediah 1777/ by Eliza Gilkyson. The studio version with the harmonium:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzhdYBQMdGk